614 



NEW YORK. 



since the creation of the commission in 1847. 

 Of the appropriation of $200,000, made by the 

 Legislature for the maintenance of the com- 

 mission, $47,569.46 had been expended at the 

 close of the year in protecting the immigrants 

 while landing, directing and forwarding those 

 who had destinations fixed upon, assisting such 

 as sought employment, and caring for the sick 

 and helpless, and $23,473.24 for special repairs 

 to buildings. Under an act of Congress, passed 

 in August, the sum of fifty cents for each alien 

 passenger intending to remain in this country 

 was thereafter collected by the United States 

 Treasury Department, and credited to the Emi- 

 gration Commission. The sum collected for 

 the first three full months after the law went 

 into operation was $8,000 less than the ex- 

 penditure for that period. 



The total cost of the new State Capitol to 

 the close of the year, including $150,000 avail- 

 able for work in progress, was $14,222,993.09. 

 The two legislative chambers and offices for 

 most of the State officers were completed. The 

 Court of Appeals room was expected to be 

 finished by March 1, 1883. The amount ex- 

 pended during the year was $1,400,000, ap- 

 plied mainly to the completion of the east front 

 and roof, the outer walls of the west front, 

 the main tower, and certain rooms and offices. 

 The outer walls were substantially completed. 

 The commissioners estimated that $1,000,000 

 to $1,250,000 would be needed for the next 

 year's work. Statements having been made to 

 the effect that certain parts of the building 

 were unsafe and especially so the heavy vault- 

 ed ceiling of the Assembly Chamber Govern- 

 or Cornell appointed a commission, consisting 

 of W. P. Trowbridge, Charles Babcock, and 

 George B. Post, to make an examination. 

 The report of the commission, made on the 

 26th of September, sustained the statements in 

 part, and recommended that the stone vaulting 

 in the Assembly Chamber be replaced by a 

 construction of wood, on account of its great 

 weight and insufficient support. The archi- 

 tects of the Capitol, Leopold Eidlitz, H. H. 

 Richardson, and Frederick L. Olmsted, re- 

 plied to the criticisms and conclusions of the 

 commission in a communication to the Gov- 

 ernor, dated October 6th. They showed that 

 the apprehensions regarding the safety of the 

 Assembly Chamber were without foundation, 

 giving in detail the supports, the variations 

 from perpendicular of columns, the settling of 

 bases, etc., which were less, rather than more, 

 than is usual in such cases. The closing para- 

 graph of the architects' statement is as fol- 

 lows: 



"We find in the report of the commission no war- 

 rant for any further recommendation, except that the 

 fractured stone still remaining in the main vault be 

 replaced ; that the work be properly pointed, and that 

 the equilibrium of all the vaults be reviewed, and, if 

 need be, corrected. Nor can we find in the report 

 warrant for any other opinion than that when these 

 slight repairs are made tne vaulted ceiling of the As- 

 sembly Chamber will be a perfectly sound and perma- 



nent structure. In its present condition, and without 

 repairs, there is nothing in the condition of the ceil- 

 ing to warrant apprehensions in regard to its safety, 

 or to prevent the immediate occupation of the cham- 

 ber by the Assembly. 



General Newton M. Curtis, special agent of 

 the United States Treasury in the New York 

 Custom-House, was indicted in the early part 

 of the year, under the law forbidding public 

 officers to collect contributions of money for 

 political purposes. On trial he was convicted, 

 and a motion in arrest of judgment, and for a 

 new trial, was denied by the Circuit Court in 

 July. The decision was sustained on an ap- 

 peal to the Supreme Court of the United States 

 in December. (See POLITICAL ASSESSMENTS.) 



The freight-handlers' strike in New York 

 city, during the summer, led to an important 

 judicial decision regarding the obligations of 

 railroad companies, and the power of the State 

 through the courts to compel them to fulfill 

 those obligations. (For particulars of the case 

 see page 456, under LABOR, MOVEMENTS OF.) 

 In rendering the decision of the General Term 

 in January, 1883, Judge Davis said : 



The question presented by the motion is one of 

 signal importance. It is whether the people of the 

 State can invoke the power of the courts to compel 

 the exercise by railroad corporations of the most use- 

 ful public functions with which they are clothed. If 

 the people have that right, there can be no doubt that 

 their Attorney-General is the proper officer to set it 

 in effective operation on their behalf. The question 

 involves a consideration of the nature of this class 

 of corporations, the objects for which they are cre- 

 ated, the powers conferred, and the duties imposed 

 upon them by the laws of their creation and of the 

 State. As bodies corporate, their ownership may be, 

 and usually is, altogether private, belonging to the 

 holders of their capital stock, and their managements 

 may be vested in such officers and agents as the stock- 

 holders and directors under the provisions of the law 

 may appoint. In this sense they are to be regarded 

 as trading or private corporations, having in view the 

 profit or advantage of the corporators. But these 

 conditions are in no just sense in conflict with their 

 obligations and duties to the public. The objects of 

 their creation are from their very nature largely dil- 

 ferent from those of ordinary private and trading cor- 

 porations. Eailroads are in every essential quality 

 public highways, created for public use, but per- 

 mitted to be owned, controlled, and managed by pri- 

 vate persons. But for this quality the railroads of 

 the respondent could not lawfully exist. Their con- 

 struction depended upon the exercise of the right of 

 eminent domain, which belongs to the State in its cor- 

 porate capacity alone, and can not be conferred except 

 upon a " public use." The State has no power to grant 

 tne right of eminent domain to any corporation or 

 person for other than a public use. Every attempt to 

 go beyond that is void by the Constitution, and, al- 

 though the Legislature may determine what is a ne- 

 cessary public use, it can not by any sort of enactment 

 divest of that character any portion of the right of 

 eminent domain which it may confer. This charac- 

 teristic of " public use " is in no sense lost or dimin- 

 ished by the fact that the use of the railroad by the 

 corporation which constructs or owns it must from its 

 nature be exclusive. That incident grows out of the 

 method of use, which does not admit of any enjoy- 

 ment in common by the public. The general and 

 popular use of a railroad as a highway is therefore 

 handed over exclusively to corporate management 

 and control, because that is for the best and manifest 

 advantage of the public. The progress of science and 



